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Derek Mahon - The Hudson Letter (clothbound)

"… something fresh and virtually unprecedented in modern Irish poetry: a work of art that is at once a love letter and a dream of reconciliation, a diary of a trauma and a vision of restoration." Ben Howard, Sewanee Review

"From the first page of Derek Mahon's new collection of poems we know that we are back in the hands of a master." Peggy O'Brien, Irish Times

from To Mrs. Moore at Inishannon

I get each Sunday off and use the privilege
to explore Broadway, the new Brooklyn Bridge
or the Statue of Liberty, copper torch on top
which, wd. you believe it, actually lights up,
and look at the Jersey shore-line, blue and gold:
it's all fire and sunlight here in the New World.
Eagles and bugles! Curious their simple faith
that stars and stripes are all of life and death —
as if Earth's centre lay in Central Park
when we both know it runs thro' Co. Cork.
Sometimes at night, in my imagination,
I hear you calling me across the ocean;
but the money's good, tho' I've had to buy new clothes
for the equatorial climate. I enclose
ten dollars, more to come (here, for God's sake,
they fling the stuff around like snuff at a wake).
'Bye now; and Mother, dear, you may be sure
I remain
yr. loving daughter,
—Bridget Moore.